Category Archives: Thoreau

Thoreau

Thoreau’s Solitude

“This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore. ~ The bullfrogs trump to usher in the night, and the note of the whip-poor-will is borne on the rippling wind from over the water.”

So begins Henry David Thoreau’s chapter titled Solitude from his book Walden. I like Thoreau’s suggestion that your senses can become one in taking in the summer evening. We went to sleep last night listening to the frogs — a sure sign of the new season. Thoreau ends this chapter enthusing about the power of the morning air to keep one serene and contented. It is hard to imagine this lover of nature working in his family’s pencil factory in Concord, Massachusetts, but that’s what he did much of his adult life.

Are the writings from this man of the mid-1800’s relevant today? I haven’t read much Thoreau – so you tell me..?